


Rather Know Pain Than Ignorance

by MoMoMomma



Category: Captain America, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Death, Children, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Major Original Character(s), Time Travel, Tony Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 08:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/784007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoMoMomma/pseuds/MoMoMomma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Camden was shooting for was to go back in time, meet the man his dad was before he became his dad. He certainly didn't expect what he got.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rather Know Pain Than Ignorance

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Major Character Death, References to death postpartum.
> 
> Written for this prompt on the Avengers Kink Meme:
> 
> Their son invents a time machine. He's got Tony's brains, snark, and charisma, plus Pepper's awesomeness. He says he's about to formally inherit Stark Industries in his time, because in the future, Tony is old and about to kick the dust happily and contentedly.  
> +1 if he initially poofs into existence in Tony's lab, and surprises JARVIS by asking for the time, date and year. He introduces himself to JARVIS, and while the AI informs the Avengers plus Pepper, he makes himself at home in Tony's lab, plays with Dummy, You and Butterfingers, and casually hacks Tony's computers to look at Tony's current projects.  
> +10 if the reason for his time travel is that he wanted to know his dad from before, before Tony manned up, married Pepper and had his son, because everyone from the future said that Tony was different then.  
> +100 if their son is a generally well-adjusted guy, with very few issues as someone raised by Tony and Pepper and the rest of the Avengers. They did a good job of raising him.  
> +1000 if he graduated from MIT earlier than Tony, and he's the current head of R&D of SI. The time-machine he built is stable and portable, powered by the arc reactor, of course.  
> +10000 if he's the reason why Tony and Pepper finally tie the knot.  
> +100000 if he tells the future Tony about his adventure to the past when he goes back to his own time, and the future Tony dies smiling.  
> Up to filler if he also inherits the Ironman suits.

“Tell me again.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Really?”

“If it’s the truth, why would it be an issue?”

“Fucking—Fine. My name is Camden James Stark. I was born on December 16th, 2020. I was born to Virginia Potts and Anthony Stark, otherwise known as _you_ , you ignorant asshat.”

Camden leveled a glare through the glass of the containment area at his father who frowned and turned to Uncle Steve, speaking with him quietly. In the lapse while they chatted, Fury strode forward to speak into the microphone Tony had been using to question him.

“How did you manage to return to this time? And why?”

“I managed to return because I’m **literally** the smartest man in the world, and I did it to see what my dad was like before he and my mother got married. Obviously the stories everyone tells me are true.”

“Stories?”

“About how he was an insouciant fuckface.”

“HEY!” His dad scrambled to the mic and hollered into it, Camden wincing at the reverberation.

“I don’t think being just a **little** freaked out that some man randomly smashed into my lab table classifies me as a fuckface.”

“No, having Butterfingers and Dummy hold me down while you called SHIELD even _after_ I told you I was your son is what classified you as a fuckface.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Then stop **_BEING ONE_**.” Camden snarled, stomping his feet and straining against where some idiot agent had bound his hands behind his back.

There was a squeal as his dad smacked the microphone in annoyance, stomping around and ripping the door of the chamber open. Camden glared at the man he’d been raised by as he stalked inside, shutting the door behind him and screwing with the control panel to ensure no one else could come in for the moment. He’d gone his whole life hearing people make remarks about just how much getting married changed Tony Stark, and how having Camden changed him even more so. That was the whole reason he’d built the damn time machine that had dropped him here; to see for himself what his father had been like in the past.

It wasn’t like the man was going to be around much long to share stories about the good ol’ days.

“Why now?”

Camden blinked up at Tony who was standing in front of him, arms crossed high on his chest.

“Beg pardon?”

“Why choose to come back now?”

“I just now built the machine?” Camden offered with a look of derision, his father making a low sound of annoyance.

“No, no, no. No, no one has the ability to invent a time machine and just decides to randomly. If you’ve got the materials and you don’t do it before that point you were waiting for something. What triggered this? Why now?”

“I wanted to know what you were like before you married mom.”

Tony made another noise and shoved his fingers through his hair, mussing the black locks further.

“No! Damnit, stop being a difficult little shit. Why did you come back here now? At this very moment? Why not just ask me in the future? Am I not around? Am I not…approachable?”

Camden blinked at the change in tone during the last two sentences, all bravado gone, tension seeping from his father’s body only to be replaced by an air of disappointment. He shook his head, hope flashing in Tony’s eyes at the action. Camden blew out a breath, looking up at the immovable rock of his childhood. His dad always had the answers, always had a willing ear and an open set of arms for him, even to this day.

From what his dad had told him, and his mom after he went hunting for more information, Tony wasn’t offered any of those during his own childhood. Instead, he was met with derision and disappointment every time he turned around. It wasn’t any surprise the man was worried about the type of dad he’d turn out to be.

“You’re…I mean, you’re tough. You give me shit for leaving projects unfinished and always lecture me on having everything from a plan B to a plan double Z, but you’re a good dad. You play catch with me and you taught me how to swim and you—hell—you gave me Dummy when I graduated MIT to be my lab assistant!”

Tony looked taken aback for a moment before he cleared his throat, striding around to unwind the rope from Camden’s wrists. The others behind the glass made faces but no one rushed in to stop him so Camden brought his arms around, rolling his shoulders free of the needles and massaging where the rope had cut into skin. He slipped from the chair, sitting on the floor of the room, Tony coming back to settle in front of him.

“I gave you Dummy, huh? How old were you?”

“15.”

“15?! I didn’t graduate MIT until I was 17!”

“Yes, well, that’s unfortunate for you.”

His dad shut his mouth and glared at him, Camden shrugging with a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth that he tried desperately to hide. Tony huffed and leaned backwards, propping himself on his palms. He tilted his head all the way back and in the reflection of the glass Camden saw him blow a kiss to Pepper who shook her head. Camden took the moment to look over his mother, smiling softly at the person he’d only see in pictures and videos.

Pepper Potts had passed away from internal hemorrhaging 20 minutes after he’d been born. Camden had one picture of her holding him before the doctor’s had taken him away in an attempt to rush her to the OR and it was everywhere; under the visor in his car, the background on his computer, on his bedside table. He wanted just a few more, before he left this time, to take back to his dad. Let him see the woman he fell in love with one more time before…

“You’re dying.”

His dad straightened to face him once more, all the playfulness in his face gone.

“Figured. Shrapnel getting to be too much?”

“Yeah. Human body can only take so much.”

Tony nodded, settling back into a comfortable position, eyeing landing on where Camden was mindlessly twisting his wedding ring around his finger.

“You’re married?”

“Hmmm?” Camden looked down, smiling as he thought of the woman he’d chased for ages before she finally gave in. “Yeah, two years in a couple months. One hell of a girl, you like her.”

“I do?”

“Oh yeah. Told me after the first time you met her that if I gave up chasing after her you’d disown me and give her the company.”

Tony laughed, shaking his head and shoving a hand through his hair. Camden’s watch beeped in the silence between them, bringing a filthy curse from his lips. Damnit, that was the hour warning. He knew he didn’t have much time, the arc reactor powering the time machine was self-sustaining but even it had a power limit before it would weaken.

He couldn’t risk getting trapped back in this time.

Tony gestured to the watch with a grim look.

“Time to go?”

“Almost, yeah. It’ll snatch me back in about an hour.”

“What happens then?”

“When I go back? Within a week you’ll be gone and I’ll inherit Stark Industries. Not that I’m going to run the damn thing. I’m handing it over to Rhodey, she’ll do a much better job than me.”

Tony arched a brow and mouthed ‘she’ with a smirk. Camden grinned back and shrugged his shoulders.

“Hey, what can I say? Raised by all you guys, seems like everyone started popping out kids at the same time.”

“All of them?”

Camden nodded and suddenly became aware that the other Avengers were paying very close attention on the other side of the glass. He nodded towards them, Tony turning at the movement.

“Think we should let them in now?”

“It won’t fuck up the timeline?”

“Naw, all that science fiction shit of ‘what will happen, will happen’ actually rings true. If it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be.”

Tony huffed out a breath as he shoved himself to his feet, crossing to the containment room door and tugging it open. He called out for the others and within moments Camden found himself surrounding by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, all settled on the floor with his mom and dad front and center. Tony gestured around at them with a smug smile.

“Got anything like this in your time?”

Camden let out a laugh, thinking about the late night visitor a few weeks ago that had him jumping out of the ceiling while Julia looked at him with amusement.

“Actually, yeah. Avengers Initiative 2.0. One hell of a team, grew up with pretty much all of them. It’s a massive response team that’ll kick in as soon as the next idiot decides Earth is a stellar place to launch an attack.”

“Who makes it up?” Steve asked curiously, looking around at everyone in the circle.

Camden raised up a hand and starting ticking off names on his fingers, grinning widening at each one.

“Let’s see, there’s James, new Captain America. Since he’s actually only a Lieutenant the papers are calling him Lieutenant Liberty which makes me want to pee myself laughing. Nikki, she’s our sharp-shooter. Pick a fly off the ass of a running bull at 500 yards, though I personally disagree with what she uses to do so. Phoenix, my science bro, love that guy. He’s got a…condition. Awesome in battle, not so much so during a horror movie marathon. Sasha’s all-around awesome, even if he is an arrogant shit. I’m not sure how in the hell he managed to learn all those different martial arts but I don’t spar with him anymore. I’m not fond of eating training mat. Eira and Fenrir only pop in every so often, only to eat everything in my kitchen most of the time. And try to sleep with my wife, but to be fair so did Sasha and James for a while back there. Scary helpful in battle though. Nothing like French-fried enemies of the state. Fen makes clean-up pretty easy too. And then there’s me.” Camden finally finished, grinning and pointing at himself.

There were a few murmurs around the group as they processed the information, some, like Thor, looking unsurprised at the news while others, like Uncle Steve, looked like they’d gotten whacked in the ass with a two-by-four. They sat there and talked for the remaining time, bullshitting about how well Camden had turned out, how much had changed, and what the world was like. By the time his watch started beeping out the thirty second countdown, it felt as though only moments had passed.

For one desperate moment Camden wanted to scream his frustration. He’d accomplished so little in retrospect. Yeah, he’d gotten to know his dad and the rest of the Avengers before they became the people he knew, but it didn’t seem like enough. Suddenly aching for something to hang onto, he rapped his knuckles on the floor, staring at his mother.

“Can I…Look, this is gonna sound stupid as hell, but can I have your necklace?”

It was a thin, boring little chain but Camden would trade his stock and company for it at the moment. After a slight pause she nodded, sliding it off and leaning forward to loop it around his neck. He squeezed his eyes tight at the pain of having her so close, but so far away in his own time. His eyes popped back open, the louder beeps of the ten second countdown fading away as she wrapped him in a hug and dropped a kiss on his cheek.

“I love you, mom.” He choked out, gripping onto her suit jacket as she shushed him softly.

“I love you. Whatever happens to me, whatever happens in the future, know that, alright?”

He drew back to respond, to tell her something, to tell her anything, but the world disappeared in a spin of nausea and pain. When he next opened his eyes Camden was sprawled on the floor of the time machine, panting against the still rolling waves of nausea. He shoved himself up slightly, resting his weight on hands and knees and looking up just as Julia slid to her knees in front of him. She reached out for him, pulling him into a hug.

“Baby, baby, I met her. I met them all.” He said hoarsely, hanging onto her for all he had as the other Avengers circled around them.

“I know.” She drew back with a small smile, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. “SHIELD records.”

He let out a small laugh and shook his head, giving her a soft kiss before climbing to his feet. Camden couldn’t help but finger the delicate chain around his throat, his only memory of a mother long gone. Julia’s phone going off broke his reverie and he looked over, watching as her face went stony.

It was time.

Before she could say a word he nodded, reaching out to take her hand as she ended the call and slipped the phone into her pocket.

“Let’s go say goodbye to my pops.”

**********************************

“—And you can’t **ground** me for calling you an insouciant fuckface because _technically_ you weren’t my dad then!”

Tony laughed in the bed, holding a hand to his chest as he winced, the grin still staying through the pain.

“I can too, kid. Still your dad now. So, don’t hate your old man?”

“Nope. Love you just as much as I did when I left.” Camden answered, propping his forearms on the side of his dad’s bed and watching the monitors that were slowly dipping.

“Hey, pops?”

“Hmm?”

Tony was half out of it now, slowing slipping away and Camden reached over with one hand, grasping onto Julia’s tightly.

“I’m glad you married mom.”

“Hmmm, had to. Some kid popped in and told me I did. Hate to…disappoint.” His dad wheezed, swallowing hard as the monitors started beeping in alarm.

Camden blinked back tears at the words, reaching out to take a hold of his dad’s hand, feeling his dad grip back with all the strength he had left in his body.

“I love you dad.”

“Love you too kid. Longer than you’ve been alive.”

With those words, Anthony Stark passed from the world, a smile on his lips. Camden leaned against Julia, smiling through his tears. His father had lived a hell of a life, raised a pretty good kid, and turned himself around. And he’d done it as a single father, so even more points in his favor.

If there was anything his father had taught him, by words and by actions, it was that the past may shape you, but it certainly didn’t define you.

**Author's Note:**

> And yes, Camden is married to the daughter of someone in the MCU as well :D


End file.
